[Bill Ferny]

Burrahobbit, its more like a natural ability than a learned skill, though. Gandalf, Tom, the wight, have magical abilities, just as certain elves had the ability to make magical rings and weapons. Abilities can be developed or neglected in the same way that learned skills can be developed or neglected.

A cobbler has the skill to make shoes but just as easily could have learned the skills necessary to make horse-shoes. Both the cobbler and the blacksmith are tradesmen by learned skill. In a typical D&D fantasy setting magic is presented in this manner. This is also the prevalent position taken by the modern occult crowd.

On the other hand, there are natural abilities. Human beings have the natural ability to reason. However, there are those who hone this ability to a higher degree than others. There are some who neglect this natural ability all together.

As far as magic is concerned there seems to be those who were able to hone their natural magical abilities to a higher degree than others. For example, certain elves can make magical items and command the powers of certain magical devices. Apparently there are Istari of various levels of ability. Some types of elves are more magical than others. There is even a certain type of human that can command a degree of natural magical ability, such as the Númenórean kings who could command the Palantirí. But there is absolutely no indication that the Dunlendings, for example, could ever gain such abilities.

I don’t know if I would go so far as to call “magic” in the LotR anything other than magic, though. In the end it was the word chosen by the author. The term “power” doesn’t seem to be specific enough.

I’m looking for a witch’s brew in the corpus, but can’t find one. If you know of one please let me know.